Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Yahoo concerned that release of redacted FISA papers may mislead

Yahoo has asked that it be allowed to review declassified documents of a secret court about a dispute over data collection between the Internet company and the government, as the release of the redacted documents could mislead the public.

The company had asked the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in July to order the public release of a secret order in a 2008 surveillance dispute, as it would demonstrate that the Internet company "objected strenuously" to government directives.

Former National Security Agency contractor, Edward Snowden, disclosed through newspaper reports that Internet companies provided real-time access to content on their servers to the NSA under a surveillance program called Prism. The Internet companies denied the charge.

Most data requests are in the form of "gag orders," which prohibit the recipients of orders from discussing them in public.